In the Jan 9, 2012 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine in the Online First section an article appeared showing that women studied as part of the Women’s Health Initiative who were on statin drugs during the study developed diabetes at greater rates than those who were not on these drugs.  According to the statistical analysis of the authors, being on a statin increased the relative risk of developing diabetes by 48 percent!

These were observational studies and, as such, can’t be used to determine causality.  But they are interesting nonetheless because according to one of the authors there have been other clinical trials showing the same thing.  One of the authors of the study, Dr. JoAnn Manson, Professor of Medicine and Harvard Medical School commented on the findings of this study and what they mean to doctors who put patients on statins.  Dr. Manson’s commentary was provided by Medscape, a site for physicians to go to learn about the latest in medical wizardry.  The site requires registration, but if you are interested, you are allowed to register even if you aren’t a physician.

I decided that instead of commenting on Dr. Manson’s video after the fact, I would do it in real time right on the video.  This is my first effort at anything like this, so you can let me know what you think of it.  If you find it enjoyable and/or helpful, please drop a note in the comments, and I may be inspired to try it again.

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I’m going to tell you about the best low-carb book I’ve ever read. In fact, it’s exactly the book I wish I had written myself.  And I’ll tell you why I didn’t in a bit, but first I want to clear up a few misconceptions I may have spread in my last post.

I get feedback on the posts I write from three sources.  First, MD looks at them and tones them down if I’ve gone off on some sort of political tangent or if I’ve scattered in a bit of too colorful language.  After she gives me the go, I put the posts up and wait to see what the commenters have to say.  The third source for feedback is my friends, some MDs and/or PhDs and some not, who pick up the phone and call me.

MD okayed what I wrote. The readers who commented seemed to realize what I was trying to say.  But the phone calls were a different story.

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The first week of January is the traditional time for overweight people to start a diet.  For years I’ve told my patients (and anyone else who would listen) to fight the holiday eat-a-thon and start the new year at the same weight they started the month of November.  During the time between Thanksgiving and the end of the year, so the media typically reports, the average weight gain is anywhere from five to ten pounds per person.  A study in Nutrition Reviews showed the weight gain to be much less on average but a little over five pounds in those who are already obese.  This same study confirms a belief I’ve had for many years.

The best and easiest way to stay slim is to never become obese in the first place.

What I mean by making this seemingly obvious statement is that when a person goes from being normal weight to being overweight it is an indication that something metabolically has gotten broken.  At this point, no one knows for sure what gets broken, but many (and I count myself in this ever growing group) believe the damage occurs in the mitochondria, the organelles within the cells that are the energy furnaces.  Once whatever it is that gets broken breaks, it is difficult from that point on to lose weight and maintain weight loss without effort.

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I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year.  I hope 2012 brings good things to us all.

I also want to use this post to do a little housekeeping and let everyone know I’m going to try my hardest to post more frequently in 2012 (one of my resolutions, in fact).  But given my horrendous schedule lately (which shows no signs of letting up anytime soon), the only way I can post more regularly is to devote way less time to dealing with comments.

When I first started this blog six or seven years ago (June 2005, I think), I had almost no comments.  Before I kicked it off, I read a few niche blogs about the whole concept of blogging.  Many of those bloggers had readers asking about how to get more comments.  Some were asking if it were kosher to write comments under fake names so it would look like the blogger had a greater readership.  I don’t think I got a comment on the first bunch of blog posts I wrote, so I was wondering about that myself.

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The Santa Barbara Choral Society performs Handel’s Messiah

Composed for a fundraiser for a Dublin prison, Handel’s Messiah has become a perennial Christmas favorite everywhere. The entire performance is in three parts and takes over two hours for the entire performance.  MD’s choral group, the Santa Barbara Choral Society, typically performs all of Part I, and selections from Parts II and III.  I’m crazy about the whole thing, but the selection that people are most familiar with is the Hallelujah Chorus from Part II.

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